What I mean by an "annoying hand" is a hand that isn't necessarily bad, but a hand that makes you groan, moan, cry, or otherwise whine about how you missed a spectacular hand by one or two specific cards. Some of the phrases you may hear when a player receives a top five "most annoying hand" are, "Why do the pinochle gods hate me!?", "Is this a joke?", "Why does this always happen to me?", "I wish I could show you my hand.", "Who dealt this garbage?", "Are you serious?", and so on. A major benefit to playing pinochle online is the ability to scream and yell at your computer screen, when you are dealt one of these frustrating hands, while appearing to be calm, cool, and collected to the players online.

My Top Five Most Annoying Hands In Pinochle:

#5 - The Super Balanced Hand With Little Meld

#4 - The Super Long Trump Suit With Little Meld

#3 - The One Ace Away From Double Aces And No Trump Suit

#2 - The One Card Away From A Double Run And Little Meld

#1 - The One Card Away From A Double Run And Double Aces! (This has never happened to me except in nightmares.)

I'll definitely agree with the big trump suit and no meld, #4 and effectively #2. #3 doesn't bother me, as that's a VERY good defensive or support hand, and #1 is already a 110 point hand, pulling 31, as presented. I'll take it!

The hands I hate are 6-6-6-2 and 7-6-6-1. They don't play well as declarer, and they tend to not work all that well on defense.

This is a big reason why I'm adamant about minimum hand requirements to bid. I've seen SO many hands where an opponent "bids to save the meld" but doesn't even *sniff* at pulling 20...even though partner wins 4 tricks.

(01-18-2013, 02:51 PM)ToreadorElder Wrote: This is a big reason why I'm adamant about minimum hand requirements to bid. I've seen SO many hands where an opponent "bids to save the meld" but doesn't even *sniff* at pulling 20...even though partner wins 4 tricks.

I'd bid aces and hope for the best. The worst is having double aces around without a marriage, bidding 59 and have your partner pass it back to you

Yes, that's bad...but 59 is the one case where IMO your partner should save on ANY marriage. If the opponents bid, it's easy to let them have it when your side doesn't have a trump suit at all, and if they pass, your side's obviously safe to bid a few times to clarify who should be declarer.

Another annoying hand: ANY time you have a great suit with no marriage. Say, or something. With or without meld. That's 9 tricks, and that says PLAY ME! Oops...you can't. The flip side: the great good joy when some fool with

decides he has to play it, and in DIAMONDS. Doesn't happen very often, but it is sooo delicious to punish fools.